Seven Month Mark - Milestones and Memories
In the midst of remembering Jesus's death and resurrection this weekend, I'm kinda at a loss on how to sum up reaching our seventh month home with our son. I'm driven back to the Gospel time and time again in so many ways. The fact that we did adopt, were able to adopt and are overfilled with joy every day because of it - that was all God. The fact that our son is with us, understands who we pray to and rejoices in reading his Bible every night before bed - that is all God's work. Bible was one of his first words actually :) The fact that I have hope for now and eternity in a very broken world is not evidence to who I am, but who God is, what He did on the cross so many years ago - all God!
This past month, we did reach a milestone in our adoption - we had our final post-placement meeting. We now are in a waiting period for these reports to be sent to Thailand. Then they will give their final stamp of approval on us, and send what is called their 'Consent to Adopt.' This is what we need to actually adopt our son here in Indiana.
Thailand is one of the very few countries that you don't adopt your child in-country, but instead go through this post-placement season, then adopt here at home.
We are excited to, Lord willing, get that consent by mid-late summer, and then wrap up final details with our lawyer to stand before a judge!
It continually sounds like a long process, and it will be overall at least 3.5 years from start to legally finished. BUT, can I tell you how worth it it is, how amazing our little boy is, how perfectly planned each step was and is (orchestrated only by God who could do this) AND we got our boy home three quarters of the way through the process. PLUS we get to have family and friends with us when we stand before a judge!
We had one other milestone that brought tears to my eyes. As many of you know, our boy did not speak, at all, when he came home (he was over three years old). He understood Thai, but did not speak, even though he had been in speech therapy for months. So for these seven months, I have worked with him on vocab and learning how to talk. He understood English fast, and the progression of his language was amazing. One syllable words to two syllable words to short sentences and so on. This communication barrier was extremely hard for us to go through, BUT GOD has been so faithful, and I can't tell you today how many times we have to tell him to stop talking. Like when he's brushing his teeth and paste is drooling out, or food is in his mouth, or Jason and I are trying to have a conversation. What I blessing to hear his little mouth go!
The milestone however is not him talking, although that's amazing. He can't answer questions yet outside of the basic colors, or what he's learning. I was printing out his progress reports from Thailand for his scrapbook and he saw one of the pictures. Now, he's seen this picture before but he's always just said it's him. This time he told me what it was. It was his birthday party, and he had birthday cake. Now, there was no cake in the picture, I only knew it was his birthday after he said it because the file was sent around that date, and if you look close you can see a napkin in English that says happy birthday (which obviously he can't read). He remembered his first (one year old) birthday! And he could tell me!
Chills of excitement and wonder come over me. Would he remember and tell us what his life was like in Thailand? I hoped so, but didn't know what he'd remember and what he'd forget. I so long to know! We have a break-down of his life before us, and although most of us don't remember those years, our boy lived in certain places at certain times with people - maybe he'd remember more than the rest of us would? This milestone of this little boy's vault was opened in a few words - I'm so excited to get past communicating what show he wants to watch or what food he wants to eat to understand him more, deeper.
These two milestones will take us on to greater things, and we know they are a continuing of what God has already done in our lives and our boy's life, and a testimony of what God may have yet to do.
Milestone #1 - Waiting to finalize.
This past month, we did reach a milestone in our adoption - we had our final post-placement meeting. We now are in a waiting period for these reports to be sent to Thailand. Then they will give their final stamp of approval on us, and send what is called their 'Consent to Adopt.' This is what we need to actually adopt our son here in Indiana.Thailand is one of the very few countries that you don't adopt your child in-country, but instead go through this post-placement season, then adopt here at home.
We are excited to, Lord willing, get that consent by mid-late summer, and then wrap up final details with our lawyer to stand before a judge!
It continually sounds like a long process, and it will be overall at least 3.5 years from start to legally finished. BUT, can I tell you how worth it it is, how amazing our little boy is, how perfectly planned each step was and is (orchestrated only by God who could do this) AND we got our boy home three quarters of the way through the process. PLUS we get to have family and friends with us when we stand before a judge!
Milestone #2 - What comes out of his mouth...
We had one other milestone that brought tears to my eyes. As many of you know, our boy did not speak, at all, when he came home (he was over three years old). He understood Thai, but did not speak, even though he had been in speech therapy for months. So for these seven months, I have worked with him on vocab and learning how to talk. He understood English fast, and the progression of his language was amazing. One syllable words to two syllable words to short sentences and so on. This communication barrier was extremely hard for us to go through, BUT GOD has been so faithful, and I can't tell you today how many times we have to tell him to stop talking. Like when he's brushing his teeth and paste is drooling out, or food is in his mouth, or Jason and I are trying to have a conversation. What I blessing to hear his little mouth go!The milestone however is not him talking, although that's amazing. He can't answer questions yet outside of the basic colors, or what he's learning. I was printing out his progress reports from Thailand for his scrapbook and he saw one of the pictures. Now, he's seen this picture before but he's always just said it's him. This time he told me what it was. It was his birthday party, and he had birthday cake. Now, there was no cake in the picture, I only knew it was his birthday after he said it because the file was sent around that date, and if you look close you can see a napkin in English that says happy birthday (which obviously he can't read). He remembered his first (one year old) birthday! And he could tell me!
Chills of excitement and wonder come over me. Would he remember and tell us what his life was like in Thailand? I hoped so, but didn't know what he'd remember and what he'd forget. I so long to know! We have a break-down of his life before us, and although most of us don't remember those years, our boy lived in certain places at certain times with people - maybe he'd remember more than the rest of us would? This milestone of this little boy's vault was opened in a few words - I'm so excited to get past communicating what show he wants to watch or what food he wants to eat to understand him more, deeper.
These two milestones will take us on to greater things, and we know they are a continuing of what God has already done in our lives and our boy's life, and a testimony of what God may have yet to do.
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